58 replies to this topic

[Evil Stevie]

Ahoy, mates. Tarnation, a forum for me game!
New fleet addition in progress: Justin LaFleur sent me the big Troll Warship a couple of years ago. After he scavenged the minifigs and some parts he wanted, he donated the hull pieces, masts, sails, and most of the other bits to the fleet. So the other night I rebuilt it.
By the rules of the game, since it’s a wide ship with three center sections, it’s a Class 7. (Yes, the set has four center section pieces, but one gets turned into the stern.) So it will get seven cannon. I’ve already taken down the unwieldy missile-launcher it came with. I didn’t get the bits for the little “jail” in the middle, but that’s fine; we need that space for cannon. (If we takes a prisoner, we will just have a pirate sit on him. Yarrr.)
It looks like I will have to go to Bricklink for exactly one part: a 1 x 1 with studs on opposite sides. My parts bin has none of those. Yet . . .
I will also add “boat plates” to the bottom to make it easier to push around on the floor.
The things I liked most about this set are almost contradictory. First, I like the new bow piece. It’s pretty! But I also like the way the stern is built up completely from more or less regular pieces. I’ve always been of two minds about the bow and stern elements. They’re definitely “juniorized,” but they make the ships much more durable for games. So I won’t give up on them for ESPG, but I sure like seeing designs that don’t require them!

[Phred]

Evil Stevie,

Will you be posting images of your ship in the Pirate MOCs Forum when the ship is complete, or at least post it on your website?

In case you are not aware, Cherno has been playing ESPG lately and has shared his adventures, such as his upcoming game and his fleet.  

[Sinner]

Evil Stevie, on 07 January 2011 - 05:52 AM, said:

Ahoy, mates. Tarnation, a forum for me game!

You're Steve Jackson? THE Steve Jackson? If so I've loved your work for years... especially the Fighting Fantasy game books.  

EDIT: Ooops... I just made the common mistake; you're the other famous game designer. I'm so embarrassed...

[Evil Stevie]

Siegfried, on 08 January 2011 - 02:44 PM, said:

Ooops... I just made the common mistake; you're the other famous game designer. I'm so embarrassed...

No prob. (Insert your favorite evil pirate grin here.) Actually, I *did* write three of 'em . . .

[b0bb33z3r]

Hi all,

I just recently stumbled upon Evil Stevie's Pirate Game a few weeks ago and have been itching to get a gaming group together to play.  I'm curious what the definition of a wide ship is verse a regular ship.  Is it a specific number of studs across?  Thanks for the input.  

-b0b

[Horry]

Now this is a spectacular concept. I am playin' P&P rpg meself and we've got some similar rules. I might just salvage some of these to add them into my repertoire if this is allowed. Are the rules open content? Also: have to gather some more vesselparts to prepare a game on me one!

[Cherno]

b0bb33z3r, on 29 March 2011 - 10:10 PM, said:

Hi all,

I just recently stumbled upon Evil Stevie's Pirate Game a few weeks ago and have been itching to get a gaming group together to play.  I'm curious what the definition of a wide ship is verse a regular ship.  Is it a specific number of studs across?  Thanks for the input.  

-b0b

There is no "hard" definition for that. You just looks at the ships you have on hand and see which ones are relatively broad and which are rather slim. I think the rules somewhere mention the underlying principle: Long and narrow means faster, short and wide means slower. As a sort of standard i would suggest the following guidelines:

Wide hull, one or no center section: Wide
Wide hull, two center sections: Regular
Wide hull, three or more center sections: Narrow

Narrow hull, no center section: Wide
Narrow hull, one center section: Regular
Narrow hull two or more center sections: Narrow

But really, you should just go for what works best for you. If it looks wide, count it as a wide ship  

[Phred]

Cherno, on 30 March 2011 - 01:20 PM, said:

Wide hull, one or no center section: Wide
Wide hull, two center sections: Regular
Wide hull, three or more center sections: Narrow

Narrow hull, no center section: Wide
Narrow hull, one center section: Regular
Narrow hull two or more center sections: Narrow

Cherno,
Do you consider the 16 stud wide hulls as "Wide hulls",
and the 12 stud wide hulls as "Narrow hulls"?

[Cherno]

Phred, on 30 March 2011 - 01:22 PM, said:

Cherno,
Do you consider the 16 stud wide hulls as "Wide hulls",
and the 12 stud wide hulls as "Narrow hulls"?

Yes, and i think the ESPG rules also differentiate between these two hull sizes in their ship class table.

[Dread_Privateer_Roberts]

Francis Dampierre, on 30 December 2009 - 09:14 AM, said:

Of course, if this game is dead, then I'll just leave it lie. If this is the case, don't hesitate to tell me.  

Ever since the BSB first set sail my friends and I have built uppon a game that involved dice, cards, and lego. We kept playing and modifying the rules as we went. Over the years we have used different versions to accomadate Castle, Western, and Pirate themes. Keep in mind we were all just dumb country kids that grew up without internet or cable tv, you find lots of time to create things when you're not plugged into one of these darned tv screens! Now my ranch house has a full basement devoted to waging war on the high seas. To bad I live in Wyoming, we can always use another player! I recently discovered ESPG and have used a few of his ideas in our updated game, but half of the fun, at least for me, is building the game yourself so that it works well with what you have!

SHIP SIZES....

Because, in our game, we use all of the ships available through lego sets as well as any custom pieces the players create, it is necessary to make a standard by which all ships are judged. We actually get into quite a bit of detail on the specs of a ship, but once its created, all of its stats are on its "card" so its not as compilcated as it first may appear...    

We use classes, but unlike ESPG, "First Class" means largest...  "Second Class" and lower are smaller ships. All in all we have 5 classes. Class 5 being rafts, rowboats (rb w/sails), cannues (w/ or w/out sails) Class 4 being ships that are 4 studs wide (excluding the standard lego rowboat) Class 3 is based on the 6 stud wide boat from the Imperial Trading Post, Class 2 is the 12 stud ships like Imperial Flaship and Armada Flagship. Class 1 is the 16 wide hull like the NEW Imperial Flagship, BSB and so on...   Each class has a "base speed" and then other factors are added to that speed to get the ships total speed. We use this formula:

Class Standard + [(#)hull Ratio x 2]+ [(#) Sails]

For the "hull Ratio" number, measure the ships length and devide by its width, then round to a whole number. ie: If a ship is 3" wide and 6" long, it would have a 2:1 ratio. 12" x 4" = 3:1       24" x 6" = 4:1  

I'll use the (old) Imperial Flagship as an example.

It is a Class 2, so it has a base speed of 14 empty (available on my chart) it has 3 sails and a hull ratio of 3:1 so:

14 + [3 x 2] + 3 = 23"

For Manuverability, we determine how many turns it takes a ship to make a 180 degree change in direction. For this we use:

Hull Ratio + # masts + headsail =  # of turns to make 180 degree turn

So the flagship would be:

3 + 1 + 1 = 5 turns     (a headsail is the triangle shaped sail on the front of the ship)

(Durring the game this is not a hard and fast number as its pretty hard to determine an exact 36 degree course change, but its up to the players to stay close as they can)

We also have Wind in the game that changes every so many turns, both in direction and speed. We roll 2 6 sided dice to determine direction (like the face of a clock) and then 3 dice to determine speed.

Each ship has its own speeds for the different points of sail, 45 into wind (close) 90 across the wind (beam) 45 downwind (reach) and straight downwind (run)   These are based on the type of sails it runs. Square rigged ships typicaly take better advantage of downwind points of sail due to their relatively large suface areas with which to "catch" the wind. Lanteen, Gaff, and Fore and Aft rigged ships are better at sailing upwind.  

To apply this to the Flagship, It has a main mast with a square main sail and a gaff rigged sail mounted to the main. This means it has the advantages of both square riging and gaff/for and aft rig. It can effectively sail upwind with the help of the gaff rig, and downwind with the square rig. So it would have a sailing chart that would read:

Close (45 upwind)   75% windspeed
Beam (90 across)    100% windspeed
Reach (45 downwind) 100% windspeed
Run (straight down) 100% windspeed

The speed of the ship is based off of the windspeed, and even if the wind speed is at 24, the ship cannot sail faster than its max speed (in this case, 23 empty and 16 fully loaded according to my chart for a class 2)


Of course, when constructing and playing a game like this, you can make it as simple or complex as you want...  its up to you!

[Evil Stevie]

In the ESPG rules, 'regular' hulls are 12 studs wide and 'wide' are 16 studs wide. Obviously, this designation applies only to the big ships that use the specific hull pieces.

I am impressed by the front page Mister Phes built for this forum! Thank'ee!

When I get the rebuilt orc ship the way I want it, there WILL be pictures. I got my one missing piece; now I need some free time. Advance warning: for "push-around-the-floor' designs, I go for simple. And I am an enthusiast who also happens to be a game designer, NOT a master builder. So when I post my pix, any of you who say "I can do better" should definitely do so and post YOURS, so I can learn from 'em.

[Phred]

Evil Stevie, on 01 April 2011 - 07:07 AM, said:

In the ESPG rules, 'regular' hulls are 12 studs wide and 'wide' are 16 studs wide. Obviously, this designation applies only to the big ships that use the specific hull pieces.

Thank you for the clarification Evil Stevie.

Evil Stevie, on 01 April 2011 - 07:07 AM, said:

When I get the rebuilt orc ship the way I want it, there WILL be pictures. I got my one missing piece; now I need some free time.

I look forward to seeing pictures of the rebuilt orc ship.

[Evil Stevie]

Pix soon! Ship is 99% built and came out rather nice.

Now I'm looking at all the PotC stuff on the walls at the Lego Store. A pirate's work is never done!

- evil stevie -

[Evil Stevie]

Black Pearl!  (1) I think it's kind of pretty, a bit more like the classic pirate ships . . .

(2) At last it will become easy to find 12-wide center sections in black. Well, not EASY, but possible.

My LEGO table has been pretty crowded for the last few months, but I *am* going to do the last few bits on the troll ship and get photos to post.

[DDthemaster]

Evil Stevie, on 18 July 2011 - 11:28 PM, said:

Black Pearl!  (1) I think it's kind of pretty, a bit more like the classic pirate ships . . .

(2) At last it will become easy to find 12-wide center sections in black. Well, not EASY, but possible.

My LEGO table has been pretty crowded for the last few months, but I *am* going to do the last few bits on the troll ship and get photos to post.

I thought the Black Pearl was 16-wide?

[legomonk]

So, I hope this is the right place to post this first off. If not I apologies in advance for my offense. Some friends and I played a game of Evil Steves Pirate Game at our local game store. We normally play Warhammer 40k but knowing my love of Lego, they agreed to try it out. We had fun, and enjoyed the break from the norm. I lost sadly   I was playing the large Imperial Flagship and found that quicker smaller ships loaded down with guys can over run me. my Imperial team mate played the Caribbean clipper and another smaller skiff. the apposing team consisted of a knockoff a friend bought to play that I sorta want to rebuild in lego and a QueenAnn's Revenge and several smaller skiffs.

[Hive]

Looks interesting. How does it work?

Also, do you have a picture of the knockoff ship? You got me curious now.  

[Yawgmoth]

It's like playing Fire Emblem, or Advance Wars, but with lego pirates!... or it can be better, like real role playing at the Dungeons and Dragons Style! ... I'd love to play with a bunch of guys, but I'm afraid there's little pirates-lego fans around here  

[DDthemaster]

Hive, on 28 February 2012 - 01:49 AM, said:

Looks interesting. How does it work?

Also, do you have a picture of the knockoff ship? You got me curious now.  

I'd say its the Enlighten brand ship Adventure. I've got one and its actually pretty good for a knockoff but its still not nearly as good as Lego.

[legomonk]

Yawgmoth, on 28 February 2012 - 04:47 AM, said:

It's like playing Fire Emblem, or Advance Wars, but with lego pirates!... or it can be better, like real role playing at the Dungeons and Dragons Style! ... I'd love to play with a bunch of guys, but I'm afraid there's little pirates-lego fans around here  

Its pretty fun, we played the advanced rules and it was a long game. We plan on doing it again soon. we thought about adding some RPG style play but the game is fun with out it and you can get the rules for free if you google search them.

DDthemaster, on 28 February 2012 - 07:11 AM, said:

I'd say its the Enlighten brand ship Adventure. I've got one and its actually pretty good for a knockoff but its still not nearly as good as Lego.

I dont have a pic of it sorry. the ship is close to a BRB but not as great. The figs are CRAP though. do believe it is and enlighten brand knockoff.

Edited by legomonk, 28 February 2012 - 10:21 PM.

[RPGer]

This looks like a really cool game legomonk, how did you play it?  

[Hive]

I glanced over the rules for this game. It sounds like it could be immensely fun - but also quite demanding and complicated. Much worse than Axis & Allies.  

[Norro]

Hive, on 29 February 2012 - 01:20 AM, said:

I glanced over the rules for this game. It sounds like it could be immensely fun - but also quite demanding and complicated. Much worse than Axis & Allies.  

Someone else in the lego sphere plays axis and allies?! Good to hear!

God Bless,

Nathan

[Big Cam]

legomonk, on 28 February 2012 - 12:09 AM, said:

So, I hope this is the right place to post this first off. If not I apologies in advance for my offense.

Right forum, but there was an existing thread.

No worries I merged it.

[legomonk]

RPGer, on 29 February 2012 - 12:53 AM, said:

This looks like a really cool game legomonk, how did you play it?  

You play on a rather large surface so we played on the floor of the basement player area at our local game store. you have ships with a set amount of crew and gun/cannon depending on size of the ship. Plot courses for your ships and move them along courses declaring firing actions when you come close and rolling dice to make the attacks. Its a pretty simple game once you understand the core.

Big Cam, on 29 February 2012 - 02:39 AM, said:

Right forum, but there was an existing thread.

No worries I merged it.

Thank you sir!